Would you like to be younger and collaborate on current movies at present time or you are happy that you  worked at the time and with people you did?

Of course I would  like to be younger and healthier but I wouldn´t want to work on current kind of movies.

You made fame with decorations for various blockbusters, you got Oscar and César awards for them.Were you only intrepid pupil or you were born gifted from God since there are certain things you can´t learn, can you?

Hm, I don´t think I was intrepid pupil, it came out of blue and specially my film work for which I had no qualification.As you know I am a painter and attended academy of art.It was thanks to great director František Vláčil, who asked me to join him and help  with movie Markéta Lazarová. That´s how I was introduced to film industry.

You had to have big fantasy and imagination to be able to do what you did.Do you think fantasy is thing one either has or hasn´t or you can work on it during your life?

You have to be born with fantasy, you have to have it.Of course you can work on it as you live but fantasy itself isn´t enough, you have to have lots of information about world around you and then put it all together.

Some directors praise current high technology which enables anybody to make a movie even by mobile phone.How do you view current technology.Don´t you think it has big potential but also brings into film sterility and alienation?

Well, I can´t probably give you the good answer since I don´t work in film industry for almost twenty years.My last movie was Miloš Forman´s Larry Flint.Short while ago I read an acrticle by John Hart who criticises this very thing and says it was much better in those days when director was next to actors, not behind the wall of monitores where one doesn´t see what he wants from actors. I myself think that good old days were much better.

Why did you leave film business, you lost interest or there were no offers for your service?

Offers were plentifull but I realized that I am not getting any younger, time is flying and I can´t sit on two chairs at the same time, so I decided to devote my time to what I learnt to do and that is painting.I had many offers, but I politelly declined to accept them.

At the time when you were in film business there were good screenplays, top directors and top actors.How do you view current Czech film scene, are you with it?

There are not any films made, that would be called a Czech cinematigraphy treasure.I like very much director Michálek and my number one is David Ondříček who can surprise with many interesting projects.But other than that, it´s all grey, uninteresting mish mash.I must admit I like  old movies and respect directors like Vláčil or Jireš.Today there are plenty films made which you forget by next week.

We always looked with adoration onto American films and Hollywood was kind of THE film cradle.Do you think that we in Europe have enough of quality screenplays with deep idea but simply Americans have money and they can make and sell even the stupid crap movie?

That American film isn´t what make cinematography such a great discipline, it´s all those people that America sucks in.Let that be the best world directors who come to Hollywood and work for Amerian movie.Obviously it´s a question of money and big amount of technology which Europe simply can´t compete with.We can compete in quality of screenplays and people but not on technical side.

You achieved a lot.What is more important to be creative, come with new ideas and don´t be affraid to experiment or you have to be 100% professional?Which is more important for you to make name for yourself which opens another door for you?

You have to create your own background, you have to know what it´s all about and then you can let your fantasy work.You can´t do things from word go, you have to have plenty of infomation and you must study lot s of things.It all makes good result than.

You created decorations for sci-fi movies.How do you view our future, aren´t you bit affraid about what is happening around us?

Sci fi- costumes, it´s very  tricky thing.If you look at an American sci fi film from not so distant past, it looks funny cos designers can´t suss it out.The technical progress goes so fast and authors don´t manage to cope with it and don´t have big enough fantasy.I got „Zlatý Golem“ award for film „ Zítra vstanu a opařím se čajem“.If only Americans knew what I was working with…..I was running around second hand or antique shops to get old radios, phones and made sci-.fi objects from them.So that is big satisfaction for met hat film didn´t look comical but if you compare it with foreign films, it´s just hilarious.But we have plenty of very handy man who can make anything from nothing.There are limits of what you can work with and I think we did what we could in given conditions.

What would you advice young film-designer-to-be who would like to follow your tiretreds?

Don´t do these things at the first place.Whole of my life I was against teaching somebody these things.I hated idea of standing infront of young people telling them about things that were important for me but they are not important for them.It wouldn´t work.They can´t push me to advice somebody what he is supposed to do.

If you made only Amadeus movie for which you won Oscar award would you be more proud at your work than at dozens of movies that are loved by people but never won any awards?

I am satisfied with every movie which I can watch without any feelings of shame.Obviously, Amadeus was great success and it can´t be medially surpassed.Here they don´t even know how big it was around the world.Even if I hadn´t worked upon this film, I made many with which I am very satisfied.Even without Amadeus I would feel that I had fullfilled my potential and life.

What is more important for you, if film had big success, but you weren´t artistically satisfied or when film is a flop but you are fullfilled and happy with it as an artist?

If film is a flop, you flop with it, it can´t be other way.Film is team work, it has to go hand in hand.The worst thing is, if you go out of the movie and say “ wow, there were great costumes or great sunset“.That film must hit you as a complex, it must impress you and those costumes and effects are just sidethings.Important is director and story and it doesn´t work if you try to make your own things to outshine others.You have to back off.

Where do you find inspirations for your pictures?

Inspiration is what we live in, what is happening around us from morning till evening.You somehow realize that something important is around you and you have to make your statement and you have to have your own impression for what we live in.